I hate that Warner Bros. can't just stay as its own company, but at least with Netflix, they stated they'd keep the two services separate. Meanwhile, Paramount is already making it clear that they'll be merged.

The only bright side is that the cable networks will be preserved rather than sold off (at least not yet), whereas Netflix had no plans to acquire the linear networks in its planned Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition. They were to be sold off. That's why people boo-hooing about CBS News/CNN, particularly their employees, need to just stop it. At least CNN will have some corporate muscle to support them, rather than being owned by whoever would have eventually bought it, TBS, TNT and Cartoon Network, among others, as part of a standalone company offered for sale at a bargain basement price.

5 minutes ago, Errol said:

I hate that Warner Bros. can't just stay as its own company, but at least with Netflix, they stated they'd keep the two services separate. Meanwhile, Paramount is already making it clear that they'll be merged.

The only bright side is that the cable networks will be preserved rather than sold off (at least not yet), whereas Netflix had no plans to acquire the linear networks in its planned Warner Bros. Discovery acquisition. They were to be sold off. That's why people boo-hooing about CBS News/CNN, particularly their employees, need to just stop it. At least CNN will have some corporate muscle to support them, rather than being owned by whoever would have eventually bought it, TBS, TNT and Cartoon Network, among others, as part of a standalone company offered for sale at a bargain basement price.

HBO Max continues to feel like a pawn when it should never have been. Going from HBO Max to Max was a huge downgrade, especially when the platform itself got a piss-poor redesign and became unusable. Now we're about to get what? Paramount Max? HBO Plus? 🤣

For a long time, Anderson Cooper has worked for both CNN and for CBS' 60 Minutes.
He announced Feb. 16 that after almost 20 years of doing both, he's leaving 60 minutes but staying with CNN.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/anderson-cooper-is-leaving-60-minutes-but-staying-with-cnn

On 2/27/2026 at 3:52 PM, Wendy said:

Oh, we all know they want to rush this. But I'd think - if Dems do retake Congress this November - if it does go through, the next step could be antitrust moves and demanding this be broken up.

One can hope.

1 hour ago, janea4old said:

For a long time, Anderson Cooper has worked for both CNN and for CBS' 60 Minutes.
He announced Feb. 16 that after almost 20 years of doing both, he's leaving 60 minutes but staying with CNN.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/anderson-cooper-is-leaving-60-minutes-but-staying-with-cnn

Very happy that is a PBS link and also sad it's an end of an era. To think I still remember him from Channel One in my junior high.

5 hours ago, Taoboi said:

One can hope.

Hope is all I have left with this Trump-ian s.hitshow.

7 hours ago, Errol said:

That's why people boo-hooing about CBS News/CNN, particularly their employees, need to just stop it. At least CNN will have some corporate muscle to support them

Who, though? Because, at the end of the day, it's the Ellisons. And one only has to look at the trash pile that CBS has fast transformed into under Bari Weiss and the Ellisons steering the ship (into a proverbial iceberg).

I'd say those employees are right to be upset/worried/angry. Because it's all about subverting actual journalism to bend the knee to a toddler tyrant.

I admit that I don't understand all these corporation wheelings and dealings ....
but I thought I read that CNN would stay separate only if Netflix bought Warner.
But if Paramount gets Warner, then Paramount gets CNN?
But again, I don't understand it fully, and wasn't clear on what I read.

1 minute ago, janea4old said:

I admit that I don't understand all these corporation wheelings and dealings ....
but I thought I read that CNN would stay separate only if Netflix bought Warner.
But if Paramount gets Warner, then Paramount gets CNN?

I think so? Netflix wasn't interested in acquiring any of WBD's cable TV holdings, but Paramount/Skydance was.

Of course, CNN has long been a target of Trump's, even though they literally helped him win the first time; and with Emperor Palatine's son now on the verge of owning the network, there's a better than good chance he will turn it into another FNC/Newsmax/OAN or just strip it and sell it for parts. Either way, CNN is toast, lol.

53 minutes ago, Wendy said:

Who, though? Because, at the end of the day, it's the Ellisons. And one only has to look at the trash pile that CBS has fast transformed into under Bari Weiss and the Ellisons steering the ship (into a proverbial iceberg).

I'd say those employees are right to be upset/worried/angry. Because it's all about subverting actual journalism to bend the knee to a toddler tyrant.

Exactly. Of course, if Netflix had won out, and CNN, along with WBD's other cable TV channels, had been jettisoned, I'm not so sure another, right wing-leaning media conglomerate such as Nexstar or Sinclair wouldn't have snapped them up, thereby sealing CNN's fate regardless.

5 minutes ago, Khan said:

Exactly. Of course, if Netflix had won out, and CNN, along with WBD's other cable TV channels, had been jettisoned, I'm not so sure another, right wing-leaning media conglomerate such as Nexstar or Sinclair wouldn't have snapped them up, thereby sealing CNN's fate regardless.

Exactly.

At least with Paramount, they'll (employees) get actual benefits with their employment. Nexstar or something similar gives you passes to the local dentist.

Regardless of whether a company is big or small, all employees work at the behest of their employer. Not sure why political ideology is such a problem for people, though, whether it be left or right. IMO, no one side is always right or wrong on any single thing.

1 hour ago, Wendy said:

Who, though? Because, at the end of the day, it's the Ellisons. And one only has to look at the trash pile that CBS has fast transformed into under Bari Weiss and the Ellisons steering the ship (into a proverbial iceberg).

I'd say those employees are right to be upset/worried/angry. Because it's all about subverting actual journalism to bend the knee to a toddler tyrant.

I didn't know much about the Ellisons until recently, but they made much of their money from Oracle, which is behind the technology known as JavaScript, which helps run much of the internet even today. To me, billionaires are no different from each other. Whether it's Bezos, Musk, Ellison, Murdoch, or coporate figure heads like Iger, Zaslov, or whoever, our media is controlled by people who do not have us, the viewing public, as their top priority, as evidenced by all the "shareholders" talk in the acqusition press releases by both Netflix and Paramount in their fight to win Warner Bros. Discovery.

CNN will become FOX News 2.0. Just look what's going on at CBS. A ton of people of color was laid off in the news department was a replaced with people of a lighter content. I hope the EU stalls merger until 29' so we can get that idiot out of office and stop this horrible merger.

From October 2025 but still relevant: John Oliver exposé on the Paramount/Skydance merger and Ellison appointing Bari Weiss as head of CBS News, with in Oliver's usual hardhitting style of in-depth analysis with his humor interjected at points.

Edited 14 minutes ago14 min by janea4old